Malum Lake (GirlXGirl)

Chp. 13

***BROOKLYN’S POV***

I heard a piercing scream, and even though we were in the basement there was a window that peeked outside. My heart was going super fast, someone was in trouble. I ran to the window, it was dark down here, but I could see outside. 

And to my horror, it was Zeke. 

I screamed, “No!”

I watched as he was being drug by his hair, cringing, and feeling such remorse. I banged my hand on the window but it was no use… I could do nothing for him. 

My heart felt as if it had been ripped out, I screamed, and I felt Allison’s arms wrap around me. I felt the tears sting my eyes, the lump form in my throat. Zeke was struggling the best he could, but I saw his legs… 

There was nothing we could do. 

I pressed my head against the window, wishing I could do anything for him, but I knew the truth. I saw the axe rise into the air, and I shut my eyes as I watched it start to come down. I fell backwards into Allison’s arm and I felt the tears roll down my face, the realization and the fear, the remorse, it all hit me. 

Allison turned me around, wrapping her arms around my neck and pulling my face into her shoulder. I was shaking, I hadn’t even realized it till now, and I cried, “I can’t do this…”

She shook her head, “No… you can, and you will.”

She was staying strong but I could see past her façade, she was trying not to freak me out but she was freaking out in her own head. Staying strong just wasn’t possible right now, but I knew I needed to try or we weren’t going to survive. 

We were in the attic that I had found the evil dictionary in, but we had yet to actually explore it. I didn’t anyway, mostly because I was to consumed in the dictionary incident. 

I didn’t know where that man was, but I knew he was in the woods somewhere. I knew he wasn’t finished with us though… he was going to kill all of us, or try anyway. I knew this was going to haunt us for the rest of our lives if we survived though, which made me wonder if I even wanted to make it out alive. 

The trauma…

Then I felt Allison’s sweaty palm in mine, and I remembered the reason I was still going. 

My friends… what was left of them. 

I felt my eyes sting at the thought, feeling the pit in my stomach worsen with sadness, and regret, and everything else. 

If I would’ve spoken up… we might not have been in this situation. We might be somewhere else, not here, that was the important part. 

Allison pulled me next to her, “I’m so scared Brooklyn…”